Business Marketing grad founded thriving Canadian marketing firm
CEO Dave Hale knew how to get Soshal.
It’s all in the name of his Ottawa-based firm, which specializes in business development consulting, product and service design, and marketing.
He learned the tricks of his trade in Algonquin’s Business Marketing program – almost by accident. Inspired by TV’s Mad Men, he enrolled at the College – in what he thought was Algonquin’s advertising program. His dream was to become a modern-day Don Draper. Instead, he accidentally enrolled in Marketing, and the rest is history.
Hale loved his classes, and stuck with his unexpected educational path. “The College gave me context to apply the skillset I had: being able to talk to people, come up with ideas, and sell stuff.”
Today, Hale has no problem selling himself or his company’s vision and track record. His team works with some of the most well-known brands in the world – from Bell Media to Honda to Survey Monkey – and also with Ottawa’s most iconic companies including CHEO, Gabriel Pizza, Ottawa Sports & Entertainment Group, Saunders Farm, and even Algonquin College itself (Soshal’s longest-standing client).
The highlight of his Algonquin days was the “experiential education,” including the Ontario Colleges Marketing Competition (OCMC) and BDC Vanier Cup National Case Competition. In Hale’s fourth semester, students were asked to “create an agency with classmates” and create a marketing plan for a client. That’s essentially become his day job.
Entrepreneurship was always Hale’s goal – to be his own boss. Algonquin helped make that happen.
He has always been an ideas man – “some ridiculous, some less ridiculous” he admits. Among Hale’s more wacky life moments: building “the world’s largest branded corn maze in partnership with FIFA” and designing “haunted houses that have been experienced by more than one million people.”
His advice to Marketing students hoping to launch their own companies, “Produce tangible results. We have been successful because we’ve built a brand around accountability, it’s what our client’s and partners expect of us, what we demand of ourselves, and what keeps us humble and focused.
“We create value,” Hale explained, adding his business decisions are still influenced by the College’s four core values: caring, learning, integrity, and respect.
Soshal currently has 20 employees and clients across North America – from Ottawa to Dallas to San Francisco and everywhere in between. The company’s mission statement reads like Mad Men for the modern age as it partners with entrepreneurial companies to grow their revenue, improve their bottom line, and build new businesses.
Don Draper would be proud.